If you had to think of the single best example of what the epitome is of exercise as a way to longevity, it would have to be Jack LaLanne. I can’t recall why, but his name came up in a conversation not too long ago, and I was taken aback by the fact that the man is still alive and kicking… at 95!
And Jack isn’t just surviving, he looks as vital as when he was a young whipper snapper in his 70s.
So what’s the secret? There may not be one simple answer. To most people in the last few decades of his life, they know him for his juicer infomercials. But, LaLanne originally gained recognition as a successful bodybuilder. He owes his vitality to the power of strength training.
When I take long road trips, I always wonder when I see beautiful mansions on the side of the highway “why on Earth would anyone build such a beautiful home right there?” Well, there are more than aesthetic reasons for not building your home right next to a busy road. According to a team at Lund University in Sweden, people who live near a noisy road are at a greater risk of developing high blood pressure.
The health risk was even higher when the noise rose above an average daily exposure of 60 decibels. That accounts for about one in four people in western Europe. No comparable analysis was done on how many people would be affected in the U.S.
Our bodies naturally produce cholesterol. The amount is dependent on genetics. It’s not inherently bad. You need cholesterol for various bodily functions. However, too much cholesterol can be unhealthy. The American Heart Association established a range for your daily intake:
- Less than 200 mg/dL is considered healthy.
- 200 to 239 mg/dL is borderline high cholesterol.
- 240 mg/dL and above is an unhealthy cholesterol level.
Many of our favorite foods contribute to high cholesterol. But there are some foods that can lower your cholesterol levels. Here are the top five as recommended by the Mayo Clinic:
With the passing of the King of Pop Michael Jackson of apparent cardiac arrest and the infomercial king Billy Mays of heart disease, guess what comes to the forefront of everyone’s minds. You guessed it.
It’s estimated that in 2005 more than 27 percent of all Americans died of a heart-related ailment. To put it in even more dire terms, one American dies every 37 seconds from complications related to heart disease.
These statistics, while getting worse, aren’t particularly new. Heart disease has been the leading killer in the U.S. for every year since 1900 excluding 1918 when there was a flu pandemic.
Put down that PB&J on white bread and listen to this: In a just-released landmark study, researchers at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine and the Heart Institute of Sheba Medical Center found that high carbohydrate foods can be extremely dangerous to the health of your heart. Implicated foods include the “bad” carbs like white bread, sugary cereals, cookies and cakes.
While this isn’t exactly new news, this important study provides a direct reason why these high glycemic foods wreak havoc on the heart and increase risk of heart disease. The researchers showed that after you eat a carb-laden food like a bowl of corn flakes or a Twinkie, your brachial arteries become distended, or swollen, for several hours. While it’s important for the arteries to have a certain amount of elasticity in them, over time, a sudden expansion of the arteries, which follows after noshing on a carb-filled snack, can cause a number of negative health effects, including reduced elasticity, which can cause heart disease or sudden death.
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